16 JUNE 1984, Page 19

Sir: I have just returned from a visit to Nottinghamshire,

looking at buildings for a guidebook I am writing, and was shocked to find that in the diocese of Southwell on a Sunday afternoon, out of several churches inspected only one was open. All the others were firmly locked and their vicars were not to be found. It is difficult to believe that the threat of vandalism is not now used as an excuse for clerical sloth. The Church of England might be in a less parlous state if bishops spent their time administering their dioceses rather than writing waffling `caring' letters to the Times.

John Martin Robinson

8 Doughty Mews, London WC I